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After a few years of modding retail cases, I've decided to build my own from scratch. And because of how much I've enjoyed these forums in the last few months, I've decided on a [H]ard theme for this case.
I've got some sketches laid out, made calls to my friends with cnc routers, and purchased all the hardware & tools needed to complete the job.
Here are some teaser pics of what it will look like when it's finished:
It's only going to be about 13" tall, 14" deep, and 8.5" wide (the rendering above is a bit narrow). It will house a full ATX mobo, DVD+-R/RW, 6600gt, 120gb maxtor, water pump, radiator, a 120mm fan, and my seasonic psu. It's going to be a tight fit, but I've designed it with airflow in mind.
the orange boxes represent 120mm fans, the black box in the front is the optical drive, the white box on the bottom front is a harddrive, the large white box next to that is the psu, and the one on top of the psu is my pump. You can also see the motherboard in the background. The agp and pci slots are not in the right spots. I didn't create those to scale.
The top two 120's will be exhausting air. One will be attached to the radiator, one will be free. The only intakes are the three holes in the front bottom, and the holes next to the psu in the rear. The exhaust fans should provide enough pull to keep a good air flow over my hd, video card (which will be water-cooled, but the ram won't), and motherboard.
It's going to feature a vertically mounted optical drive, room ambient intake for the psu (exhausting back into the room, bypassing the case's air completely), and a suspension mounting for the harddrive to cut down on noise.
My major challenge with this project is going to be cable management. I'm planning on sleeving everything and attaching it to the bottom of the case. This should keep most wires out of the way of airflow.
oh...and the power button will be in the back. I want this to look as clean and simple as possible.
Here are some pics of a mock-up I built out of gatorfoam to make sure everything fits perfectly, and to make any last minute adjustments if neccesary.
for comparison purposes, here it is next to my G5 at work...
it's 9" wide, 14" tall, and 13.75" deep.
Here's a motherboard tray from an old case. I cut a few inches off that I didn't need.
Here's the back of an old case that I'm going to use for the back of this case. The i/o opening is too small to fit my motherboard, so I had to cut about a 1/4" out. A standard ATX I/O shield fits perfectly now.
And both parts with their first coat of black paint.
This is why you ALWAYS wear safety goggles when you're cutting!!!!! This cutting wheel snapped and went flying accross the basement.
More details soon.....
I've got some sketches laid out, made calls to my friends with cnc routers, and purchased all the hardware & tools needed to complete the job.
Here are some teaser pics of what it will look like when it's finished:
It's only going to be about 13" tall, 14" deep, and 8.5" wide (the rendering above is a bit narrow). It will house a full ATX mobo, DVD+-R/RW, 6600gt, 120gb maxtor, water pump, radiator, a 120mm fan, and my seasonic psu. It's going to be a tight fit, but I've designed it with airflow in mind.
the orange boxes represent 120mm fans, the black box in the front is the optical drive, the white box on the bottom front is a harddrive, the large white box next to that is the psu, and the one on top of the psu is my pump. You can also see the motherboard in the background. The agp and pci slots are not in the right spots. I didn't create those to scale.
The top two 120's will be exhausting air. One will be attached to the radiator, one will be free. The only intakes are the three holes in the front bottom, and the holes next to the psu in the rear. The exhaust fans should provide enough pull to keep a good air flow over my hd, video card (which will be water-cooled, but the ram won't), and motherboard.
It's going to feature a vertically mounted optical drive, room ambient intake for the psu (exhausting back into the room, bypassing the case's air completely), and a suspension mounting for the harddrive to cut down on noise.
My major challenge with this project is going to be cable management. I'm planning on sleeving everything and attaching it to the bottom of the case. This should keep most wires out of the way of airflow.
oh...and the power button will be in the back. I want this to look as clean and simple as possible.
Here are some pics of a mock-up I built out of gatorfoam to make sure everything fits perfectly, and to make any last minute adjustments if neccesary.
for comparison purposes, here it is next to my G5 at work...
it's 9" wide, 14" tall, and 13.75" deep.
Here's a motherboard tray from an old case. I cut a few inches off that I didn't need.
Here's the back of an old case that I'm going to use for the back of this case. The i/o opening is too small to fit my motherboard, so I had to cut about a 1/4" out. A standard ATX I/O shield fits perfectly now.
And both parts with their first coat of black paint.
This is why you ALWAYS wear safety goggles when you're cutting!!!!! This cutting wheel snapped and went flying accross the basement.
More details soon.....
